


Moments

by ScarletRaven1001



Category: Todomomo - Fandom, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angst, Angst and Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Mutual Pining, Pining, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, TodoMomo Week 2020, Todoroki Shouto is Bad at Feelings, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26046091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletRaven1001/pseuds/ScarletRaven1001
Summary: Having a high school sweetheart may sound romantic, but Momo and Shouto quickly realize that it isn't quite so easy. After all, how do you deal with finding the love of your life, while you're still trying to find yourself? For their feelings for each other to blossom, they need to learn to love themselves, too.A story of young love, written for TodoMomo Week 2020.
Relationships: Todoroki Shouto & Yaoyorozu Momo, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo
Comments: 30
Kudos: 87
Collections: TodoMomo Collection, Todomomo Week 2020





	1. Soba and Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Hello fellow Todomomo shippers!  
> This is our week! YAAAAS!  
> I'm excited to share this short story with you all! Each chapter corresponds to each of the daily prompts, and this will be updated daily, all throughout Todomomo week!  
> I hope you like it, and please do let me know what you think! 💜

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1: Soba and Tea
> 
> During a rare late-night tea run, Momo runs into a sleepy, disgruntled Todoroki.

It wasn’t often that Momo found herself restless and unable to sleep.

She was always quite a deep sleeper. The fact that her quirk used her lipids at an exorbitant rate always served as a quick way to tire her out at the end of each day, and she usually found herself sleepy and ready for bed at nearly the exact same time every evening.

Yet, a particular restless energy filled her that night, and at the ungodly hour of ten o’clock, she found herself slowly walking out of her room, her sluggish steps taking her to the 3A dorm’s common kitchen.

She wasn't even hungry, per se; but her mother always told her that there was nothing that a nice cup of tea couldn't fix, and she certainly needed a bit of fixing that night.

The halls were quiet, predictably. The silence felt strangely hollow, as Momo was used to all corners of the dorm being abuzz with activity: Bakugo and his boisterous squad screaming in a corner, Midoriya's little group huddled tightly together until Ochako-chan hisses at Bakugo to stay quiet - which he usually answers with a defiant smirk and further shouting.

Oftentimes, she would find Tokoyami-san curled up in a corner, head thoughtfully buried in a book, or having an unintentional moping competition with a similarly pensive Todoroki-san.

Todoroki-san…

Momo sighed, running her palm down her face as unbidden exasperation swept through her.

It had been more than two years since they had met, two damn years since she had first realized that the beautiful boy had somehow covertly burrowed into her heart.

He was smart, competent; he was incredibly powerful and had a mastery over his very complicated quirk that was admirable by all standards.

He was the very first person who had shown their trust in her skills as a strategist, and it was this trust that had given her the confidence that she needed to become a better leader, a better hero. He had supported her, had been vocal about his belief in her abilities, and this, to Momo, was _priceless._

She was pining, quite badly, but she would never dare to breach the topic of her feelings for him, as the chances of him sharing them were quite possibly slim, to none.

He was so focused on their hero work; determined to succeed. He approached their studies with a near-robotic efficiency that sometimes put himself at risk, all for the sake of saving the lives of those around him.

He was _set_ on being the top hero. Surely, he would not have time for the frivolities of teenage crushes, no use for blushing girls stuttering their way through a clumsy confession of unrequited feelings.

She decided that thoughts of Todoroki-san were something that she should probably put off for another day. Thinking about him could possibly lead her to an even more sleepless night, and Momo was trying to go _back_ to sleep, hence the impromptu late-night visit to the tea pot in the kitchen.

It was as Momo stepped into the said kitchen, that she noticed a narrow spot of light illuminating the end of the room. It caught her by surprise, as all the lights were out, so she squinted blearily into the dim space to see where the light was coming from.

She realized that it was from the open refrigerator, and she frowned, mentally berating whichever irresponsible person had left the fridge open overnight.

She rounded the counter, hand outstretched to push the white door closed, when she noticed movement below her. She looked down, startled to find that somebody was crouched down, silently rummaging around the bottom part of the fridge, movements getting increasingly agitated the longer the search seemed to yield no results.

"Umm," she said softly, but her voice seemed enough to startle the poor person who suddenly spun, hands nearly knocking over a water bottle sitting precariously on the edge of a shelf.

Stunned, mismatched eyes stared back at her, wide in spite of their droopy, sleepy state. Grey and turquoise irises peered at her from beneath a messy fringe of unmistakable silver and red hair.

The disarray caught her off guard, as she knew that bi-colored hair to always be immaculately parted down the middle, set above a normally impassive face. At the moment, he was looking at her with such flustered surprise, and his slack-jawed expression was so _new_ to her that it pulled an unbidden giggle from her chest.

"I'm sorry, Todoroki-san," she said, nearly shaking her head at the irony of finding exactly the man pre-occupying her thoughts in the deserted kitchen. "Did I startle you?"

He straightened, clearing his throat, and she watched intently as a bright red hue covered the tops of his cheeks, visible even in the sparse light.

"Yes you did, Yaoyorozu," he replied with his usual brand of candor, an apologetic edge to his tone. "I was not expecting anyone to come down here at this time of night."

"I wasn't really expecting anyone to be here, either," she answered, before she peered over his shoulder, curious. "What were you looking for?"

He sighed heavily, shoulders sagging in clear dejection. An irritated glint passed through his gaze as he glanced back at the fridge that clearly did not hold whatever it had been that he wanted to find.

"My leftovers from lunch," he muttered, his blush darkening even further. "I wasn't very hungry earlier so I couldn't finish my meal. I put it in a takeout box and left the box here. I can't seem to find it anymore."

Her heart positively melted at the forlorn look on his face, and she offered, "Would you like me to help you look?"

"I think it would be pointless, by this point," he shook his head, clucking his tongue in agitation. "Pretty sure Midoriya ate it. He's been eating like a monster since he started bulking up, and he's taken a liking to my cold soba."

"Your soba?" she asked. "It's your favorite, isn't it?"

He nodded, then released a heavy, pained-sounding sigh. "As if being unable to fall asleep today wasn't bad enough… I am not just sleep-deprived, but soba-deprived too."

She could not help the laugh that bubbled up from her belly, tickling her heart and flowing out her lips. Todoroki just looked so incredibly downtrodden, so unlike his usual, composed self that Momo was pleasantly surprised by how astoundingly… normal, he was being.

This wasn't the man who could easily take down an army with a single sweep of an icy right hand. This Todoroki was just a sleepy, grumpy, hungry teenage boy who was missing his favorite food, and was now reluctantly complaining to the first person who would listen.

"It's not funny, Yaoyorozu," he groused. "I don't know what else to eat."

"Well," Momo started, remembering why _she_ was in the kitchen in the first place. "I don't have any soba, but I do have some tea-"

She paused, realizing what she was about to say.

Here she was, alone in a dark kitchen with her crush, and she was just about to casually offer him to have tea with her.

Tea. With her. Just the two of them.

Would he think she was too forward?

Was she effectively asking him on a sort-of date?!

She felt the beginnings of a blush begin to crawl up her neck, before she gave herself a little mental shake.

It was just tea! She had made tea for Todoroki-san – for the entire class, even – for literally _years_!

Most probably, she was just overthinking this, all because she had a secret romantic interest in him.

Momo steeled herself. She was less than a year away from being a bona fide hero graduate. She will _not_ chicken out of something as silly as asking a boy to have _tea._

"I… I could make some for you too, if you would like?" she finished, narrowly keeping herself from stuttering. She ducked her dead, hoping against hope that her face was not turning as red as she thought it would be, judging from the heat she could still feel creeping over her cheeks.

He simply shrugged, and Momo felt herself sag in relief. She wouldn’t have known what to do, if he had given her a stronger reaction.

“I suppose that would be nice,” he said. “I do enjoy tea.”

“I make really nice tea, Todoroki-san,” she said proudly, moving away from him so she could turn on one of the smaller lights near the stove, a small bulb that would give off just enough light for her to see by.

“I know,” he said softly as he closed the fridge door, and Momo somehow managed to keep from turning to face him again.

The way he said it was… strange. She couldn’t quite place it, but there was a certain melancholy, a mournful edge to the way his words nearly ended in a sigh.

She went about the usual motions of preparing her tea, purposely picking one of her favorite varieties. It was a fragrant, calming mix of chamomile and lemongrass, and a slight hint of roses gave it a distinctively fancy aroma.

She carefully poured the tea into two cups, handing one to Todoroki before she nodded in the direction of the common living room. They made their way slowly, still going by only the very meager light in the nearby kitchen. There was an unspoken rule of sorts, to not turn any further lights on, and they soon found themselves in the near dark, silently nursing their respective cups of tea.

“This really is nice, Yaoyorozu,” Todoroki remarked, softly blowing on the piping hot liquid before taking a sip.

“Mmm,” she nodded, sighing as the hot liquid traveled down her throat, warming her chest.

She peered at him over the rim of her cup, hiding the heat in her cheeks behind the warm steam rising from her drink. Even in the dark, Todoroki looked striking – perhaps, more so. The darkness cast his face in mysterious shadows, while the stark silver of his hair gleamed in defiant contrast. His eyes nearly glowed, their arresting sharpness clear even through the lack of light. The shallow lighting made the sharpness of his facial features stand out, and Momo fought hard to look away, terrified that he would notice her staring.

“This tea,” he began out of the blue, yet, Momo noticed the hesitation that crossed his lips as he spoke.

“What about it?”

“It’s very fitting,” he said. “It’s very… _you.”_

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

Momo was completely unable to help the furious blush that rose to her cheeks, when in response, Todoroki brought the teacup closer to his lips, and took a deep, purposeful whiff.

“To-Todoroki-san!” she stuttered.

He smiled at her then, a serene stretch of his lips that silenced any words, any thoughts she may have had. It was a rare, precious smile, one that she had never seen before, and the effect of that harmless quirking of his lips was instantaneous, as Momo felt her heart practically stall in her chest.

“Drinking this tea is like being near you,” he said. “It’s very soothing. It puts you at ease.”

Momo was just about ready to combust, and there he was, coolly taking another sip of tea.

“I-I… I put you at ease, Todoroki-san?” she asked meekly, trying to calm her nerves when she realized that her hands had begun to shake.

Did he even _realize_ what he was _saying?!_

He nodded. “Be it a mission, or something mundane, when you’re nearby, I can rest easy. I’m not sure if you know the effect that you have on me, Yaoyorozu.”

“I was most definitely not aware-”

“And,” he cut her off, before taking another deep breath of the tea. He brought the cup up to his lips, taking a large gulp and quickly draining it of its contents.

“And…?”

“And,” he said, a guileless look on his face. “You both smell _amazing.”_

Momo nearly dropped her cup as she gasped, feeling a flush rise up her entire body so quickly that it was almost painful. She squeaked wordlessly, lips gaping helplessly as she watched him stand up, nonchalantly turning to take the cup into the kitchen.

She sat stunned and motionless while she heard the water from the sink run, and a few minutes later, Todoroki placidly walked back into the living room, shaking his hands dry.

“Thank you for the tea,” he said as he passed her, already heading back towards the men’s side of the dorm.

She still sat silently, watching him walk towards the elevator. Right before the doors closed behind him, Todoroki stuck his hand out and looked towards her again.

“Sleep well,” he called out, “Yaomomo.”

Momo _had_ to put her cup down, after that.

“ _Yaomomo?”_ she thought, hands going up to cup her burning cheeks. “ _Yaomomo?”_

He had never called her that before!

Her mouth had gone completely dry, and she looked dejectedly at her cup, still half full of her favorite tea.

She was quite sure that no amount of tea was going to help her sleep, after that.

8-8-8-8-8

_To be continued..._


	2. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2: Nightmares
> 
> Todoroki is plagued by constant nightmares about hurting Momo, and he doesn't quite understand why he has them, or how to make them stop. Luckily, Momo is there to help him figure it all out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!  
> This is my entry for Day 2! Thanks to everyone who read and commented on chapter 1, and I hope you all like this new chapter!  
> Please do drop me a line to let me know what you think! 😊

“Todoroki-san!”

Shouto spun around wildly, his ears ringing from the sound of the falling debris. Thick, suffocating miasma rose in ominous black sheets around him. Try as he might, he could not get through, and panic began to rise in his chest as he realized that he had no idea where he was headed.

“Todoroki-san!”

The voice was becoming more frantic, and Shouto kept running, trying in vain to reach its source, his fingers blindly grasping at the nothingness.

He needed to find _her_ …

A vicious snarl exploded from deep within his chest as he rebelled, knowing he couldn’t give up. This hellish fire and smoke… _He_ caused this.

This was all his fault…

“Yaoyorozu!” he screamed, throat raw, eyes stinging madly as he kept them open in spite of the fumes that were leaking into his irises. “Yaoyorozu! Wait for me!”

Everything within him crawled with the utter need to hold her, to make sure that she was safe from the claws of his fire; this untamable, _evil_ side of his power.

“Todoroki-san!” she called out again, but more softly, and pure unbidden terror washed over him when he realized that in his haste, instead of towards her, he may have been running _away_.

“Yaoyorozu!” he yelled again, hands fisted as he felt his heart stutter, the pain from his injuries wearing him down.

He can’t… he can’t hold on…

“Momo,” he called out weakly as his knees gave out, and Shouto looked out helplessly as the darkness spread, completely taking over…

_“Todoroki-kun!”_

A very different, very masculine voice called out, and Shouto shot up, head pounding so fiercely that the low beams of light filtering into the room felt like swords stabbing into his eyelids.

“What-” he began morosely, trying in vain to squint away the headache.

“I’m glad you’re finally awake, Todoroki-kun.”

Shouto blinked, blurry vision landing on the large form that sat hunched beside him, dressed in a massive, white, metal contraption.

“Iida?” he asked.

“Yes,” came the nauseatingly enthusiastic response. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I just crawled out of my own grave,” he answered as he looked around in confusion.

He was sitting up on a typical single bed covered in pristine white sheets. The walls that surrounded him were overwhelmingly familiar, and he slapped a hand against his face in relief when he finally realized where he was.

“You’ve been here in the infirmary for quite a while, Todoroki-kun,” Iida said, unknowingly confirming Shouto’s thoughts.

“What happened?”

Just as he asked, terrifying, dark images filled his mind’s eye, and headache forgotten, he gasped, eyes wide in terror.

“Yaoyorozu!” he called, uncaring as Iida nearly fell off his seat in surprise. He turned to him, reaching for his nearest arm and grabbing hold. “Iida! Where’s Yaoyorozu?!”

“She’s fine-”

“Was she injured?” he demanded, frantically looking around the small infirmary. “The fire-”

“What fire? Todoro-”

“The fire that my stupid quirk started!” he almost shouted “How did she get out?!”

“Todoroki!” Iida said loudly, wrenching his arm free to firmly grasp Shouto’s shoulders, making him look straight into his eyes.

Something about Shouto’s face must have worried Iida, because the speed hero’s brows furrowed, before he spoke softly, “There was no fire in the field training, Todoroki-kun. You and Yaoyorozu fell through the pit, and she pulled both of you out after you lost consciousness.”

“I…” Shouto muttered, before he remembered…

It was a typical training exercise, where he had been teamed up with Yaoyorozu, Iida and Kaminari. The last thing he remembered was them falling down a crack in the floor…

The fire… that wasn’t what actually happened…

It was just another one of his many, many nightmares.

He sighed, sagging back against the pillows on the bed, closing his eyes as the memories began to sort themselves out. The nightmares were getting worse if they dared to pounce on him even beyond their usual nighttime visits, and Shouto was flabbergasted at how _vivid_ this last one seemed.

They were getting more focused, just like every other time that he began getting close to anyone…

He knew that it was part of his old traumas, that he would dream viciously of how he could injure or even kill anyone that he felt himself building a bond with. Yet, the dreams with Yaoyorozu just felt so shockingly _real_ that he couldn’t even tell where the dream ended, and reality began.

“I need… I need to lie down some more,” Shouto said quietly, firmly but gently shrugging off Iida’s tight grip.

“Are you going to be alright?”

“I will be,” he answered. “Thanks for worrying, Iida. But you should go back to the dorm and get some rest. I’ll… I’ll be just fine.”

8-8-8-8-8

It was already dark out, when Shouto finally found the courage to get up from the infirmary bed and make his way back to his room. There was a measure of fury in his veins, a deep, simmering anger that he felt towards himself, that had kept him staring sullenly at the ceiling until the rays of the sun began to fade away from the sky.

He languished in his self-loathing, the very same one that his friends and experiences at UA had done much to erase. However, years of downright abuse had made it hard to completely remove those feelings of helpless fury, and a thread of it still remained, ready to unravel during any of his drearier moments.

His friends greeted him as he entered the dorm, and he kept a dim smile plastered on his face as he assured them that he was alright. Their well-wishes might as well have been muted, because he barely heard their words over the nervous roaring in his ears, as his eyes met Yaoyorozu’s from across the hall.

She smiled at him, a bright, wide grin that showed nothing but her happiness at seeing him well. It was the same smile that he had spent countless minutes seeing in his mind’s eye; with her ruby lips curving up, the round apples of her cheeks crinkling the edges of her brilliant onyx eyes.

He wanted very much to talk to her, but found that his tongue had seemingly turned into cotton, and all he could do was gape wordlessly. He stared helplessly, everything within him screaming that all her brightness was something he should not even dare reach for, something he could never deserve to hold.

He still recalled her voice in his dream, the terrified way she had screamed his name. He very well knew that it wasn’t real, but the trauma, the guilt he felt at not being able to save her, at being the one to cause her harm, ate greedily at his insides until he felt unworthy of even looking her way.

He turned his gaze from her, resolved to stay away…

As much as he had learned to face the flames of his quirk, he still saw it for what it inherently was.

Destructive.

And in many ways, the fire that he wielded meant that everything he touched could easily burn to ashes.

8-8-8-8-8

He supposed he should have known that it was only a matter of time.

After all, he knew well of her tenacity, and in fact, admired the way that she was someone that you could not ignore.

Even if you tried, she won’t _let_ you.

Admittedly though, Shouto never expected Yaoyorozu Momo, the prim and proper vice president of their class, to be standing right outside his door at an unspeakable hour of night, holding up a small tray of tea and pastries.

He had half a mind to pretend that he was too sleepy to speak to her, but they had been getting steadily closer over the past few months… he couldn’t find it in himself to cause her any further disappointment.

So, instead, he blinked in confoundment, wordlessly stepping aside to let her into his room.

She walked in, all careless poise and grace, her thick black ponytail bouncing cheerfully around her head. She kneeled before the low table at the side of his room and began setting her treats down.

Shouto approached, gingerly kneeling beside her, slightly drawing back when she turned to him with a too-bright smile and a cup of tea in hand.

“I know you like this blend, Todoroki-san,” she said cheerfully, and he couldn’t do anything but slowly take the offered mug.

He knew from the sweet scent that it was one of his favorites; the first tea that they had shared, just the two of them, on that fateful evening when he had first found himself finally able to speak so familiarly to her. He had been sleepy, hungry and slightly out of it, and a strange flow of something akin to liquid courage had loosened his lips. He still cringed internally whenever he remembered that he had brazenly dared to tell her that she smelled nice, and he could only thank all the gods that Yaoyorozu had seemed to _like_ it.

“I believe you suspect that I am not just here tonight for tea and cookies, right Todoroki-san?”

Ah, straight to the point, wasn’t she?

“I thought as much,” he answered.

She turned to him, her smile so overly cheerful that it seemed _scary_. “Why have you been avoiding me?”

That she had just asked him so flat out had stunned him, and he put his cup down as he stuttered, “I haven’t-”

“Don’t even try to pull one on me, Todoroki-san,” she said, her dark, cat-like eyes narrowing on him as a disapproving frown suddenly pulled her lips down.

He cowered beneath her withering glare as she continued to speak.

“You know as well as I do, that I am not stupid enough to fall for that,” she said matter-of-factly. "Now, tell me what this is about."

"Yaoyorozu-"

"Todoroki-san," she cut him off, before she put her teacup down onto the table, swiftly ducking her head. He watched as her eyes seemed to stay trained on her hands running slowly along the white porcelain, and he had to strain his ears to hear her next, softly uttered words.

"I'm… I'm _hurting_."

He froze, blood running cold in horror. It was his worst nightmare, having Yaoyorozu get hurt, and his eyes ran a quick assessment of her body as he silently tried to find the source of her pain.

"Where do you hurt?" he asked softly, feeling his very chest squeeze in concern. "How can I-"

"Not… Physically," she answered, and he watched as she fidgeted, her fingers shaking ever so slightly as she raised her hand to push her thick bangs back from her eyes. "It's my _feelings_ , Todoroki-san. I feel bad because you feel so… Distant."

He stayed silent, arrested by the slight sheen that he could see gathering at the edges of her eyes as she hesitantly looked up.

Shouto may be a little slow on the uptake with matters of the heart, but he understood enough to know that, in his efforts to keep from hurting her, he had still somehow ended up doing exactly that.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked. "We… We had been talking a lot for a few weeks, and then you just started staying away, and I-"

"It wasn't you, Yaoyorozu," he said quickly. "If anything… all this is completely my fault."

"Then why?" she asked. "I'm sorry to seem presumptive but I thought… I thought we had been growing _closer_."

"We have," he responded. "And this is exactly why I feel like… Like perhaps I should stay away."

"I don't understand-"

"I have been… Reserved, with using the fire of my quirk whenever you're around," he admitted. "I always fear that I'm going to end up harming you with it, and in the last training exercise, I know that it caused me to not be as efficient as always. We fell into that pit because of me."

"It was a trap, and we both fell into it because neither of us saw it," she argued, a small furrow forming between her brows. "Was that the only reason? You've been upset about the training?"

"Partly," he admitted. "But mostly… I've been trying to stay away because I didn't want my nightmares to come true."

"Nightmares?" she asked. "About me?"

"About _me_ hurting _you,_ " he clarified, meeting her pained eyes head on.

A rush of images from the many dreams that have been getting more and more frequent since he and Yaoyorozu had steadily become closer, flashed menacingly through his mind's eye. He gulped as the mere phantom memories made him literally shake, the ice of his quirk creeping up to cause shivers to run up his spine.

"I have been having these… Dreams," he admitted, ashamed. "Always of you getting hurt because of my flames. They have been getting worse since… Since…"

"Since we started… Talking more?" she asked, and Shouto could do nothing but stare in amazement, wondering how this incredible woman could just tell, could just _know_ what he was trying to say.

“The dreams about you started back in first year,” he whispered. “It wasn’t just you, either.”

She looked even more confused, and he elaborated. “Midoriya, Iida… Uraraka. Each time I begin forming attachments, I dream about hurting those people. For the others, the dreams have since stopped. But for you…”

He bit fiercely at his lip, fearing he was about to draw blood. “The dreams I have about you just keep coming, and they grow more and more intense. They… they _scare_ me, Yaoyorozu.”

“I’m so sorry, Todoroki-san…”

“Don’t be,” he said, feeling his face drop into a scowl. “It’s not your fault that I find myself more terrified of hurting you than anyone else in this entire school.”

Much to his surprise, that statement brought a cheerful sparkle back into Yaoyorozu’s eyes. He was utterly confounded when she smiled, and even more so as he watched her lift a hand, only to place it down onto his left forearm.

“The flames aren’t hurting me now, are they?” she asked softly.

He shook his head. “No. But they could-”

“But will you let them, Todoroki-san?” she pushed, shifting closer.

Shouto barely stopped himself from taking a deep breath as the lovely scent of her slyly made its way to him; that enchanting, soothing smell of roses and peaches that he feared could intoxicate him if he weren’t careful. He stuttered, feeling his face heat up from the inside, and he fought to fight back the sparks of flame that he could feel lighting up the edges of his skin.

“I… I…” he murmured, before he steeled himself, meeting her gaze with fierce determination and a bout of confidence that he wasn’t quite sure he truly felt. “No. I would do everything to keep my flames from hurting you.”

He wasn’t quick enough to understand why his words made Momo’s cheeks flush so prettily, nor why her smile widened so much that she had to bring a dainty hand up to cover her lips with her fingers. Yet, he did understand that her reaction made him giddy, and he straightened, fully facing Yaoyorozu as he spoke again.

“I feel… differently, towards you,” he said, to which she responded with a gasp, one that she quickly smothered with her hand. “But I don’t understand how or why. And I think… I think this is one of the things that scares me the most, Yaomomo.”

Her hand on his arm tightened while her eyes softened, and she dropped the hand on her lips so she could lay it on her chest, right above her heart.

“You called me Yaomomo,” she observed.

He frowned, chagrined. “I’m sorry. Did I offend you-”

“I don’t mind,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “I don’t mind at all, if you would keep calling me that way, Todoroki-san.”

He stared as she looked down, his heart jumping at the sight of her deeply flushed cheeks. He remembered that Midoriya had once told him that he needed to “ _read the room”,_ and inept as he was at such things, Shouto _tried_ , staying deathly silent as Yaoyorozu – _Yaomomo_ , smiled so widely that she had begun to bite her lip.

“I also have very different feelings towards you, Todoroki-san,” she whispered, “and I don’t quite understand them all, either.”

She looked up to meet his gaze again, and Shouto found himself mesmerized by the most blinding smile that he had ever beheld.

“If you… if you would like to,” she continued, “I would be very happy if we could try to understand these feelings… together.”

“Yaomomo…”

“Please don’t pull away from me,” she pled, and in that moment, he would have gladly given anything that she would have asked for. “Let me stay with you. Let’s find a way to figure this all out.”

And then… Shouto realized that it finally made sense.

He wanted to be with Yaoyorozu… to walk by her side, to hold her hand. He was so terrified of harming her because she was the only thing that was precious to him, and he began to understand that the only way to make the nightmares go away was to prove to himself that he can, that he _will_ , do everything in his power to keep her safe from harm.

His feelings for her…

They were stronger than the evil of his flames.

“I would really like that, Yaomomo,” he answered, boldly leaning forward to push her thick bangs out of her face, so he could look more squarely into her eyes. “I’m going to need your help. Will you stay with me?”

She nodded, and he watched as she slowly leaned closer, until his fingers brushed against the sides of her cheeks.

“I will, Todoroki-san. I promise, I will.”

8-8-8-8-8

_To be continued..._


	3. The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: The Past
> 
> Shouto and Momo find themselves having quite a bit of fun as their relationship begins to bloom. However, getting closer to each other means accepting both the good and the bad, and Momo is stunned to learn about past aches that she had never expected from "the boy born with everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> First of all, I would like to say a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who has been reading this story! I've turned this into a bit of a challenge for myself, as I am trying to improve at writing in both Momo's and Shouto's voices! You'll probably begin to notice that this story is written alternately from each of their perspectives.  
> Also of note: the opening line and the summary both reference BNHA Episode 19: The Boy Born with Everything.  
> Momo's POV for Chapter 3! I hope you like it, and please let me know what you think!

He was the boy born with everything.

Attractive and intelligent, he was the youngest child of one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in all of hero society. He had a unique, incredibly powerful quirk, and had more than enough skill and mastery to effectively wield it. He had a kind heart and a gentle but firm mannerism that made him both an effective leader and a calm, dutiful worker.

On the surface, Todoroki Shouto truly had it all.

Yet, Momo had always been able to sense an underlying unease within him, a peculiar sort of vulnerability that she had never seen in anyone else, before.

Some had often joked that it was a façade; he could be kind of a dork at times, and the stoic way that he handled himself could be either due to a need to look “cool”, or a result of his arguably elite background.

She knew better.

None of the others had ever seen him knocking softly on her door, face slightly pale, randomly asking if she was doing alright. They couldn’t feel how clammy his hands were, how his back was damp with cold sweat; didn’t see how he tried valiantly to act like everything was alright, even though every subtle sign pointed out that he in fact, was not.

Try as she might to get to know him as he was now, she could never find the courage to ask about how his life had been before they met at UA. All she knew was that whatever he may have been through, it could not have been easy. And sometimes, whatever ghosts haunted him showed up right when they least expected it.

8-8-8-8-8

“Shouto-kun, you left this in my room last night.”

Momo had said it very softly, but as luck would have it, she inadvertently spoke during that unfortunate lull in their class’ general conversation: it was a single moment when everyone had dropped completely silent, and her whispered words had then seemed to ring extremely loudly within the classroom.

She froze, as did Shouto, who was midway through reaching out to her to retrieve the notebook that she had been trying to return to him. Both glanced about as the room had gone totally still, eyes wide in horror at the implications that they both could glean from Momo’s words.

“Ha,” came a muttered snicker from Bakugo, and suddenly, it was as if their classmates’ collective trance had been broken. Every single person present turned excitedly towards the two, who still sat stiffly near the back of the classroom.

“Oh my _God_!”

“He was in your _room,_ Yaomomo?! _”_

“Yaoyorozu-san, I truly hope that this dalliance had been before the start of the curfew!”

“ _She called him by his name_!”

She cringed as a barrage of screams and questions echoed madly around them, and she cast an apologetic look over at Shouto, only to reel back in surprise when she found him smiling.

She had not been expecting the slight upwards quirk of his lips as he took his notebook back, nor the short, fond shake of his head.

“Todoroki!” one of the boys called out – Momo was too busy trying and failing to keep the painfully massive blush off her face to even figure out who it was – and with a slight whine, asked, “Have you been holding out on us, man?”

She didn’t think he was going to answer, and when he suddenly did… she sort of wished he hadn’t.

“What Yaomomo and I do in our own time is none of your concern, Mineta,” he answered plainly.

Momo gasped, looking up in alarm to stare scandalized at Shouto, only to find him calmly sitting at his desk and flipping through his notes… As if he hadn’t just inadvertently dropped the biggest bomb _ever._

“ _Oh my GOD!_ ”

“Yaomomo!!!”

“Wait, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu?!”

“ _Eeeeeeeeeee_!”

“I am going to strangle you, Shouto-kun,” she muttered under her breath, too flustered to even attempt to blurt out her explanations.

However, as she watched him just sit there silently with a relaxed and clearly self-satisfied smile on his face, she found that she didn’t really mind that he may have outed them to the entire class in one fell swoop.

They had been taking things slow, but now the class knew that she and Shouto were… _something._ And Momo found that she liked having people know, after all.

The arrival of Aizawa-sensei effectively put a halt to all conversation, but Momo knew that everyone would be absolutely full of questions once the teacher stepped away. Just before their break period started however, a small piece of folded up paper bounced onto her desk from her right, and she glanced askance at Shouto, who was giving her a sideways smirk.

She discretely opened the small note, which said “Wanna give them the run-around?”

Without turning her head, she grinned back, and nodded.

All throughout the rest of the day, Momo and Shouto made it a game of sorts to evade as many questions, and classmates, as they could. His wide, mischievous grin made her heart soar, the warmth of his hand in hers as he pulled her along behind him a welcome sensation on her palms and fingers. The day was so completely _playful_ that Momo couldn’t help but giggle, and as the class ended, she and Shouto sped off to the dorms in spite of the many loud protests from Mina and their other nosy friends.

It had been such a lovely day… nothing could possibly go wrong!

Yet, she really should have known that a hero’s life, even that of a hero-student, could never be quite so simple. Shouto’s, least of all.

They snuck out to the kitchen shortly before curfew, so Momo could prepare some tea. Her heart was so light that evening, that she found herself barely minding her motions, and ended up putting in a little too much water in the teapot that she had set down to boil.

She set about preparing the tea leaves, while Shouto hung back, a pensive look in his eyes as he fetched cups from the kitchen cabinets.

“Shouto-kun,” she called, keeping half her mind on the tea leaves as she watched the steam begin to rise from the kettle. “I think the water’s boiling, could you hand the kettle over please?”

He dutifully did as she told, but her preoccupation made her mind a little slow, her movements just a smidge too careless. Without really thinking, Momo held her hand out to the side to reach for the kettle that Shouto had been about to give her. As she hadn’t been looking, she ended up accidentally knocking her hand against the hot metal, and Momo let out a little shriek as the small teapot tilted, splashing a tiny bit of boiling water onto the side of her thumb.

“Ow!” she gasped, berating herself about how careless she was as she reflexively moved to stick her burnt finger into her mouth to cool it.

She was completely unprepared for Shouto’s sudden loud cry, and she watched as he hastily dropped the kettle back onto the stove.

“Momo!” he said loudly, and as Momo turned to face him, she was taken aback by the absolute horror that she could see in his mismatched eyes.

“I burned you!” he exclaimed, unbidden panic on his now deathly pale face.

He looked utterly horrified, and Momo was stunned as she watched his eyes grow glassy, his mouth hanging open as he looked at her with pure _guilt_.

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for her hand, tenderly pulling it to him as he quickly encased his right hand in a thin sheet of ice. “I’m so sorry, Momo.”

He cradled her hand with so much care, and she would have flustered at the attention if she wasn’t so flabbergasted by the remorse that was cloaking him in near visible waves. He was staring at her hand, determinedly pressing his ice onto the scalded part… not meeting her gaze.

“Hey, don’t worry,” she tried to reassure him. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”

He shook his head. “I burned you, Momo.”

In a second, it clicked: Shouto had a near-constant fear of harming her with his flames, a baseless paranoia that continued to eat at him, even while she always assured him that it could never, ever happen. Now, thanks to her carelessness, she had burned herself in his presence, and his strange brand of logic must be making him feel completely responsible for her injury. 

“It wasn’t you, Shouto-kun,” she quickly reassured him. “It was my carelessness-”

“I can’t believe I spilled boiling water on you,” he hissed, and she looked on in increasing concern as his brows furrowed, his face pinching as if a deep, old wound was being sliced open right before his eyes.

“Shouto-kun, please, I-”

He kept speaking, as if he didn’t even hear her, “Especially after what happened to _me!”_

 _“What?”_ she asked, voice small, shocked.

Had he… was he trying to say what she thought he was saying?

“My scar,” he said softly, almost apologetic. He still refused to meet her gaze, and his voice filled with pain as he continued. “It’s how I got my scar.”

She gasped. “You… you were burned? Did… did the kettle fall on you?”

He shook his head, and an ugly, ironic sneer crossed his lips as he admitted, “My mother poured boiling water on my face… because she couldn’t stand my left side that looked too much like my father.”

“Oh… _”_ she whispered, disbelief and shock making her tremble where she stood. “Oh, _Shouto.”_

An overwhelming torrent of emotions washed over her… pity, fury, and sorrow warred for dominance in her heart, reaching out to the boy who reverently held her hand in his. Yet, the one thing that reigned most in her mind, was _understanding._

She finally understood why the boy born with everything seemed to regard his past with a wave of blind, seething loathing. While she looked back fondly at her own childhood, for Shouto, the past was so tainted with hurt and suffering that he still carried the burden of his abuse, even as he fought to move away from it.

He still held the scars, both the very large and visible physical one on his handsome face, and the painful, scabbing ones that his past had left in his very soul.

She felt an aching, urgent need to soothe him, and she pulled her hand away in spite of his protests. She quickly wrapped her arms tightly around him, hoping that the warmth of her embrace could help begin to soothe all his pain and hatred.

He stayed frozen for a few moments, and Momo found herself begin to sob into his chest. She held him closer, fingers clutching at the back of his shirt.

She felt it as he began to thaw, and the way he suddenly crushed her within his arms made her smile even as her tears began to flow. He buried his face in her shoulder, his lips moving urgently against her skin as he whispered his apologies, and Momo shook her head vehemently.

“Don’t be sorry Shouto-kun,” she whispered. She saw his reaction as something that wasn’t just because of how he blamed himself for burning her, and she felt a deep need to make him understand… “It’s not your fault… none of it ever was.”

They stayed unmoving, silently holding onto each other in the kitchen. She soothed him as he shook in her arms, and he gently pressed her against him as she shed tears for him, hoping that hers would make up for the ones he could no longer cry.

As they began to pull away, their gazes met, holding Momo mesmerized. He was a truly tortured soul within a boy filled with such kindness, a surprisingly innocent heart with the will and power to fight and protect all that he held dear.

In the sparkling light of his grey and turquoise orbs, Momo finally found the courage that she herself had been looking for, and before she could overanalyze and let her own fears stop her, she moved closer.

She inhaled sharply as she softly touched her lips to his, their gentle warmth filling her with unimaginable heat. She closed her eyes, feeling his breaths wash over her as he stood immobile in his apparent surprise.

It was a barely a second later that she felt his arms tighten around her again, pulling her closer as he pressed their mouths together more firmly. She sighed happily, moving her lips against his, and a new, addicting sort of thrill raced up and down her spine, making her limbs tingle while her cheeks flooded with heat.

She had no sense of time as they entwined, their small and innocent kiss deepening slowly. His hands were buried in her hair while hers held onto his shoulders, and her knees buckled in pure delight when he released a soft groan against her mouth.

It was over much too soon, and Momo found herself breathless as she stared deeply into his eyes. Her fingers crept up to his face, and she ran her thumb across his jaw, before letting it wander slowly to caress the edges of his scar.

“This is part of your past, Shouto,” she whispered. “And I know it’s hard to let go. But maybe we can try… one day at a time.”

He wrapped her tightly within his embrace once again, and she smiled.

8-8-8-8-8

_To be continued…_


	4. Sunsets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Sunsets
> 
> It's the day of their graduation from UA, and Shouto knew that he should have been happy. Instead, he finds himself conflicted, needing to make the most difficult decision that he has ever had to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is late, because Google Drive messed up my file and I had to rewrite a huge chunk of it. 😭 Writing one chapter per day is fun but sheesh, does it not leave space for silly little mess-ups. 😂

It should have been the happiest day of his life.

The past three years had been grueling, a seemingly endless cycle of hardships and challenges that all too quickly had turned the boy he had been into the man that he was learning to become.

It was the day of their graduation from UA, and as Shouto had held his diploma in his hand – the final proof that he was truly about to become the hero that he had always wanted to be – he realized with overwhelming anguish that he had no choice…

It had been a hard road, but it seemed that none of the pain and heartache that he had lived through had prepared him for what he now had to do.

“No.”

A single-word answer, filled with determination and defiance, spoken by ruby red lips that frowned deeply at him from beneath cat-like, onyx eyes. She stood before him atop the small hill, and the setting sun framed her in a halo of golden light, making her shine like the celestial that he knew he had never truly deserved to behold.

“Momo, please - ”

“ _No,_ Shouto,” she said again, but this time, her eyes had grown sullen as the edges began to fill with moisture, and he despised himself more than ever before for daring to cause her to shed tears.

He sighed mournfully, running a hand through his hair before he slowly reached for her.

Shouto felt his heart constrict in a devastatingly painful way as he moved to hold her in his arms. He embraced her tightly as she trembled and sobbed softly against his chest, and he felt her hands curl into his shirt as she embraced him back.

He truly did not deserve her, and he was not selfish enough to attempt to keep her tethered to him. She was beautiful and divine, and her place was among the stars; powerful… unreachable.

“You know I’m right, Momo,” he argued, and though he _did_ know he was right, it did not make his decision any less excruciating.

“I don’t care,” she whispered. “Why… why do we…”

She took a deep breath against his chest, and he cherished the way her warmth felt against him. Soon, this beautiful feeling will be no more than mere memories…

“Why do we _need_ to break up?” she asked brokenly.

He swallowed hard, knowing his reasons but deep down, hating, _loathing_ what needed to be done.

They had been dating for most of their third year in UA, and the rather short journey to get to where they were now had not been easy. Momo had been patient, so very patient with his many issues and Shouto would always, always be grateful to her for every bit of joy that she had given him during their final year of high school.

However, now that they were about to face the real world, he knew that the only way to let Momo’s light truly shine through, was for her to be away from him. She had received an incredible job offer in Kyoto – her previous mentor, Majestic, had offered her a chance to be part of a team establishing a new hero agency.

He knew that unless he broke it off, she will not take the job, no matter how much he knew that she truly wanted to. She would stay with him in Tokyo, would hold on to his broken-down soul and continue to try to mend it with her boundless care and cheer.

But oh, how the decision had rent him apart. He loved her, far more than he could ever love himself, but he couldn’t bear to be the reason why she couldn’t pursue the promising career that awaited her, without him at her side.

A part of him rebelled against the thought of losing her… He couldn’t really imagine what his life would be like without her, now that he had lived with her by his side for those precious few months. However, he was a hero, and doesn’t that mean that he should be selfless? If he had to suffer, for Momo to blossom, then he would gladly take the pain and bathe in it for the rest of his pointless existence.

For now, he just held her tighter, thinking of how he would never forget the way her skin felt against his skin… the way her kisses made his lips warm in that delightful way that always filled him with heat, but never burned. He would always cherish the way the mere sight of her smile lit up his darkest days, and he would never, ever get over how his heart was breaking as he reluctantly bid her goodbye, now.

“You can’t do this to me, Shouto,” she cried softly, and he very nearly caved; it would be so easy to just hold her, to crush her tighter in his arms and never let her leave. It would be so easy to say that he was stupid, and that he should never have even considered the idea of parting with her. 

And yet… “I don’t want this either, Momo. But… you need to take that job in Kyoto. With Majestic, you will be an incredible hero-”

“I can be a good hero here, with you.”

“You can’t settle for _good_ when you can be the _best,_ Momo,” he said. “And you have what it takes to be the most amazing hero that the world has ever seen.”

“But…”

“Momo,” he whispered, burying his face against her neck as he fiercely fought back his own tears. “I love you.”

She gasped.

Shouto knew well, that he had never before said those words.

He wished he had the courage to look into her eyes as he said the words that he knew she had always wanted to hear, but he couldn’t even find the strength to lift his head from her shoulder.

He wondered… Would her eyes have shone brightly in that way that he adored so much? Would her lips have curved up into a smile, or would they have trembled at how his words seemed so untimely, so unfairly bittersweet?

If he had only said the words before that day, would it have changed a thing?

He soldiered on, nearly choking on his own breath as his own agony swept over him. “I love you… so much. And this is why I am asking you to _go.”_

“You can’t tell me you love me, and then make me leave you,” she cried. “You can’t just say those words to me Shouto, and expect me to just move on.”

“ _I’m no good for you,”_ he thought, the words at the tip of his tongue, but he knew that she would argue fiercely if he dared say them out loud. She had always told him that he was incredible, a person she aspired to become, but Shouto still felt deep down that Momo had always looked at him through deeply-tinted rose-colored lenses.

“I expect you to, because I _know_ you’re strong,” he said. “Because I know that being a hero should come first. And if -”

He took a deep breath, filling his senses with her scent of roses and peaches. He grasped onto the feel of her as he searched desperately for the will to convince her to leave, when he didn’t even really want her to.

“If we find each other again later… and we find that our feelings haven’t changed…” he began.

“We’ll give this another try?” she asked.

He nodded against her, before finally pulling away. He held her shoulders as he looked into her eyes, trying desperately to make her see that should she ever want him again, he will be right there waiting for her.

“Promise me that you’ll go to Kyoto,” he begged softly. “Promise me that you’ll be the hero that you have always wanted to be.”

She smiled at him; a soft, mournful smile that made her bottom lip tremble. Her eyes were sad, but filled with understanding, and she closed them for a moment before she nodded slowly.

Her acquiesce was what he had wanted… but as she agreed to break up, Shouto could barely comprehend how his heart felt like it had been torn apart, how the bottom dropped out of his stomach as he realized that this may very well be the end.

The sun had almost dipped below the horizon, the dying rays casting her in a mesmerizing mix of orange and reddish light. He gently reached up, wiping the tears from her cheeks as he beheld her, taking in every little detail of her in these last few minutes that she was still _his._

When she opened her eyes, her gaze was clear, resolute. In that moment, Shouto told himself again that what he was doing was for the best, and Momo will accomplish more things if he wasn’t there to drag her astronomic potential down to languish on the dirty earth beside him.

She turned around, facing away from him, and he knew that this was her way of sealing the end. The sight of her back told him that it was over… Momo was no longer Shouto’s, as she would now belong to the world as its most dazzling savior.

“I promise, Todoroki-san,” she whispered.

The sound of his last name on her lips broke him, but he kept a neutral façade, forcing his bobbing throat to steady as he answered. “Thank you, Yaoyorozu.”

“But before we part,” she said, “would you at least like to watch one last sunset, together?”

He would have loved to watch the rest of his sunsets with her.

“That sounds like a good idea,” he said. Yet, his eyes stayed trained only on the golden hues that fell upon her, until the darkness of night chased the last of the light away.

8-8-8-8-8

_To be continued…_


End file.
